Leg Workouts For Men

The Guaranteed Solution To Your Chicken Legs

Tip No. 3 - Pre-Exhaust With Leg Extensions on Quad Day and Leg Curls on Hip DayAlthough no one has the same ratio of muscle fiber types, the muscle fibers activated during quad training are predominantly slow-twitch (Type II fibers). Believe it or not, I rarely ever squat more than 225 pounds, and my legs continue to grow.

Many guys see their legs grow once they use loading parameters that are different from the ones they use for the rest of their body. Higher reps are not associated with muscle growth, but when it comes to quad training, it makes a big difference. Kickstart your quad workout with 4 sets of 15-20 reps, with a 5-0-1-1 tempo (take 5 seconds to lower the weight, no pause, 1 second to rise to the starting position and then pause 1 second before performing another repetition). Rest 45 seconds between sets.

Conversely, hamstrings are predominantly fast-twitch (Type I fibers) so they will respond better to explosive and lower rep ranges such as 4-6 and 6-10. Kickstart your hip workout with 4 sets of 5-8 reps with a 40x1 tempo (take 4 seconds to lower the weight, no pause, "X" means as explosive as possible, then pause 1 second before performing another repetition). Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Tip No. 4 - Use The Old-School 5x5 Protocol: 5 sets of 5 reps with 4-0-1-1 Tempo & 2-minute RestAfter your legs are warmed up, limp on over to the squat rack to use one of the most famous rep and set protocols responsible for making generations of athletes stronger. The idea here is to start your first set of five once you have found your ideal work weight. You should hit failure on your first set of five to make this work for you. This might take one or two warmup sets to prime your legs. The reps and tempo dictate the load so a typical set might look like this:

Increase the weight 5%-10% when you accomplish 5 sets of 5 reps with a 4-0-1-1 tempo and 2-minute rest between sets. The idea is to not increase weight until you can successfully complete the goal reps and sets, and, most importantly, the tempo and rest periods.

On hip day, you can do the 5x5 method on any deadlift variation of your choice. I recommend trying an exercise you haven't tried for some time.